(Florence, Oregon) – Watching the sands shift and the landscape change can be half the fun of visiting the Oregon coast on a regular basis. Even the subtlest of differences can cause you to think, “hhmm, is this the same beach I was at last season?” (Above: higher sand levels at Stonefield).

Between Yachats and Florence, the beaches are wild and untouched. Even on busy weekends, it’s not too hard to find a beach where solitude is the rule. Somewhere halfway between these two towns, Ten Mile Creek and Stonefield Beach provide two interesting aspects of one beach – with one part quite hidden.

Above: winter's lower sand levels at Stonefield.

On the northern side of the creek and the bridge lies a beach that’s unreachable except by a small hike through uncomfortable brush, giving way to about a mile of seriously hidden sands and stones that is inaccessible anywhere else along that mile. It takes you on a long, winding path through brush, eventually giving way to a more manicured, grassy walk, snaking past a wild little lodging called There's a funky building there, at least at one time it was a BnB called The Ziggurat, an intriguing sturcture that looks like a giant Rubik’s Cube twisted at odd angles.

Down on the beach, there are bubbly basalt structures dotting the landscape, while the nearby creek gurgles away, deceptively quiet for all the power within it. You can’t cross it to reach the southern side, which is also part of Stonefield Beach.

Down on this secret beach, the basalt structures change in height and configuration with the sand levels and the tide, while during more frothy, stormy times of the year, they can appear more craggy and sharp-edged. Sand levels get lower and show more of the fascinating features.

Each year is another landscape here, with different amounts of storm-strewn logs changing the look even more drastically than the basalt stones.

You'll find Stonefield Beach on either side of Ten Mile Creek. There is a more structured parking lot on the southern side, and more of a gravel pullout on the north side. These sit about halfway between Yachats and Florence.